Of Love & Darkness
by fictionalwriter93
Summary: "Coronation day. The whole of Asgard was filled with excitement and huge expectation of the splendour that the ceremony was due to bring. There was one present whose story was not told - a lady named Yelena." Set during the events of Thor, Loki did not face his dark days alone. His pain & decline was shared by another who loved him. Loki & OC.
1. Chapter 1 - A Day of Celebration

Coronation day. The whole of Asgard was filled with excitement and huge expectation of the splendour that the ceremony was due to bring. Thor was to be named King of Asgard by the All-Father. The members of the royal family were making their way to the great hall in which the ceremony was to take place, along with Lady Sif and the warriors three. There was another present whose story was not told, a lady named Yelena. Her father had been close to the All-Father since fighting by his side during many of the great wars, so upon his death Odin felt compelled to allow the now orphaned young girl to live within the palace. She was a quiet and seemingly reserved girl, but she was not weak or fragile. While she was not a warrior, she knew how to fight and was gifted with the power of sorcery which allowed her to use her intelligence as a weapon rather than her strength.

She was making her way through to the great hall, dressed in a gown of red and gold, her brown curly hair bounced as she walked along, her bright blue eyes reflecting all of the splendour of the building in which she lived. She came across the two brothers talking about what was about to occur. She stopped as they both turned around to see who was walking by, both smiling at her.

"Congratulations Thor, I'm sure you will be a great king." She said in her soft, gentle tone. Yelena had grown up in the company of Thor, his brother Loki & their friends Sif, Fandral, Volstagg & Hogun since their childhood. When she first came to the palace, Thor was the one who was first to speak to her, he wanted to include her in their games & make-believe fights. This was not the sort of idea of fun that Yelena had, but the young prince never made it easy for her to say no. Loki on the other hand, was never quite so bold or demanding. He would often sit to one side & study sorcery whilst the others would play-fight each other, and this to Yelena seemed a much more natural way to spend ones day.

"Thank you, Yelena. I expect we will see you at the celebrations later?" he replied.

"Of course" – She was not usually one for celebrations but this time she had decided she would make an exception. She smiled and carried on her way to join the rest of the gathering.

"It's time" Loki said to his brother.

"You go ahead…I'll be along go on" he replied, a hint of nerves could perhaps be heard in his voice. Loki smiled at his brother and went to join the congregation.

He was walking down the final corridor that led to the great hall, when he heard someone behind him. He turned to see Yelena had been hiding behind one of the pillars, waiting for him.

"Sneaking up on me again? You're getting far too good at that." He said to her, with a small smile on his face.

"Well, I think I've had plenty of time to practise now" she replied, giving him one her slightly mischievous smiles. There was only one person that she had truly bonded with since her arrival at the palace, and that was Loki. They both shared their gift of sorcery and there was a side of him that only she seemed to bring out. Ever since they were children, the two of them enjoyed the others company; Yelena liked that even as a child, Loki had always been much more of the intellectual type, unlike Thor who was much more of a warrior & fighter.

"Loki, I want you to know that no matter what happens today, even with Thor becoming King, your importance to us all will not change. I know that you fear being pushed into the background by your brother's greatness, but you have a family who loves you and will never think of you as beneath him." Her tone had changed. She knew how Loki had felt since Thor had been told he would be the new King, she knew that today was a day of both happiness and sadness in his eyes. She could tell that he did not want his sadness to show through, and so put her hand to his cheek.

"Besides, there is one thing you have that Thor never will…" she said teasingly.

"Oh? And what is that?" replying to her with a small laugh, almost as if knowing what she was about to say.

She smiled. "Me." With this answer, Loki took her hand and kissed it, before taking her arm and them both walking into the hall filled with noise, excitement and huge expectation. The two of them had never allowed the rest of Asgard to know of their feelings for each other; the beauty of this ceremony was that it allowed them to walk out together in front of everyone without anything being thought of it – what could be so strange about a prince escorting a ward of the king to such a grand event? The two of them walked through the large crowd & took their place on the grand staircase, along with Frigga, Lady Sif & the Warriors Three. Odin was stood at the top, waiting to pass on the role of King to his eldest son. Before long, Thor came bursting in, the legendary hammer Mjolnir held high with pride. The crowd roared as he made his way to Odin, showing off his new weapon & basking in the cheers of the Asgardian people. Yelena was stood at the bottom of the staircase, next to where Loki was standing. She glanced at him, smiling her beautiful smile which so often left Loki unable to not smile back – even though this was Thor's day, she was his, and this thought consoled him.

Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, Thor knelt before the All-Father, ready to take his oath to become King. It was always clear that Thor would become king over Loki; he was after all the first born, it was only right. Yelena was proud of her friend & was happy for him; it was obvious how long Thor had been looking forward to his moment of glory. No matter how happy she was Thor however, she could not fight away a feeling of sadness for Loki. She knew that this was painful for him, she knew how much he wanted to feel as equally important as his brother, but with this new title & place in the family, he would never feel as though equality could be achieved.

As Odin began the official ceremony, Yelena began to feel slightly faint, her vision started blurring slowly – as well as having the gift of sorcery she was gifted, or perhaps cursed, with visions of events occurring in other parts of Asgard. She tried to fight the vision away, but this one was strong, different from others she had in the past. Odin began to halt his speech. Something was clearly wrong. As Yelena was becoming more and more immersed in her vision, her body was over-whelmed by the feeling of coldness. She knew what was happening, or at least what had occurred to take over her mind so powerfully.

"Frost Giants!" the All-Father exclaimed. At this point, she could see the creatures as clearly as she had been able to see the congregation moments before and out of confusion, fell to the ground. Loki immediately went to her aid, worried as he had never seen her affected by a vision in this way; he picked her up and carried her straight to her chambers, calling on a servant to bring the royal healer to them.

"Yelena? Can you hear me? It's going to be alright, you're safe. You're safe."

There was a slight tremble in Loki's voice as he said this. Up until this point, nobody knew about the two of them, but he was sure that his actions had given his feelings for her away. Loki was not one to show vulnerability; he would convince everyone that it had simply been a sudden instinct to remove her from the situation & public eye. And then there was the guilt. The guilt brought on by the knowledge that this was his fault. He had helped the Frost Giants into Asgard as a prank to ruin his brother's big day, but now he had caused the one person he loves above all others to suffer as well. The royal healer came to the room quickly, assessed Yelena and informed Loki that she had simply had a shock and so had fainted to stop the vision becoming anymore real to her. He gave her a small remedy to help calm her and make her sleep rested and peaceful in order for her to recover quickly.

"Thank you." Loki said, relieved that she would be okay, but still full of guilt for being the cause of her collapse. "I must return to my father and brother. You will inform me the moment she awakes?"

"Of course, Prince Loki, as soon as she awakes" replied the healer. With that, Loki reluctantly left Yelena's side to go with his father and brother to the weapons vault and investigate the further damage his little prank had caused.


	2. Chapter 2 - An Adventure Begins

It did not take long for Yelena to regain consciousness, and whatever the remedy was that she had been given, it had certainly been effective. Still a little dazed by the experience of her new, stronger vision, she sat for a few moments trying to recall the events that had taken place. As she rose from her bed, she realised that she was still in her beautiful but unfortunately not particularly comfortable gown, and as she feared that celebrations were now very low on the list of everyone's priorities, she changed into the clothes she wore whilst Sif & her did fighting practise together. She could not tell whether this was a decision she made simply based upon comfort, or based upon the fact that she still feared the potential of coming face to face with a Frost Giant.

She was keen to know exactly what had happened; the Frost Giants were a race feared by the whole of Asgard & the stories her father had told her as a child haunted her as she tried to push away the memory of the visions she had had that day. Wandering through the palace, she finally came upon Thor, Loki, Sif & the Warriors Three gathered in the banquet hall. She saw that the table had been overturned, she gathered by Thor in a fit of rage, but she did not want to question what had occurred there, she wanted the bigger picture. Everyone in the room had a look of relief upon their face when they saw her enter, but the expression that had previously been on their faces was not one that looked comfortable.

"My friends, we're going to Jotunheim" declared Thor, with a look of triumph upon his face, the voice of a warrior speaking.

"Thor, you cannot be serious?" she remarked without even thinking, the thought of him endangering his friends in such a dark & evil place as Jotunheim for the glory of battle was not one that sat well with her. While she regarded Thor as a friend, his lack of consideration for his friends when it came to toying with their lives for the thrill of a fight often momentarily turned her against him.

"We need answers, we will get them" he replied, before walking out of the room. Loki was sitting away from the rest of the group, his concern was clear in his face and he gave her a look that she knew was him telling her not to come with them. After a few exchanges of looks at each other, Sif & the Warriors followed after Thor, leaving Yelena alone with Loki. This had been the norm ever since they were children. The two of them stayed exactly where they were; neither of them spoke for a while. The silence however was full of relief on Loki's part that Yelena was back to her normal self, but worry from them both at what was about to be done.

"You aren't just going to let him go are you? There must be something you can do or say to change his mind?" she asked, there was a tone in her voice that bordered on pleading. She did not want to go to that frozen wasteland, nor did she want Loki to be put in danger.

"You know Thor. Once his mind is made up, it is made up. He thinks only as a fighter, as the warrior who will lead Asgard through any threat. No matter what the cost. There is something I can do, but I must go along with him for now. I want you to stay here, you still need to rest after what happened today. I'm glad you are alright." The tone of Loki's voice was still full of guilt. She was better now, but it was still his fault that they were stuck with having to go to Jotunheim. He started to walk off, in the same direction as the others, but Yelena was not letting him go without her. She ran after him –

"If you're going, then so am I. Do not even try to argue with me Loki, I may not be the best fighter, but one more person is better than one less" her tone was so strong & determined that Loki knew to argue would be pointless. He did not want her in danger, but he knew that in a similar way to Thor, once her choice was made, there was no changing her mind. With a small nod of acceptance, the two walked through the corridors together, to join the rest of the group in the courtyard. Just before they reached the group preparing their horses to ride along the rainbow bridge to reach the Bifrost, Loki stopped.

"You go ahead; there is something I need to do. Go on, I'll be only a moment" he said to her. She looked doubtful of him, as if she knew that whatever he was not telling her was something important. He put his hand on her shoulder as if to reassure that it was going to be alright, but she knew when was up to something. She always had known. Reluctantly, she went ahead & began to ready her horse. It was only a moment before Loki joined her; she had turned to look at what he was doing only a few seconds before, she was sure he had spoken to one of the guards. She thought nothing of it, he had always been good at making excuses up for the group to go out on an adventure without the All-Father knowing, he was probably just covering their backs once again. The group were ready, well, as ready as they could be with the knowledge of what they were about to face, and within a short time they had reached Heimdall's observatory & the Bifrost. Heimdall was the gate keeper of the realm, the one who could see & hear everything. The group knew that getting past him would not be easy; he was sworn to obey Odin & the journey to Jotunheim was forbidden.

"Leave this to me" Loki said, walking ahead of the group. "Good Heimdall…" he began.

"You're not dressed warmly enough" he said bluntly, cutting Loki off before he had even really started.

"I'm sorry?" said Loki, a blank look upon his face, taken aback by the comment.

"You think that you can deceive me?" Heimdall responded in a calm but serious way. Loki tried to laugh at what he was suggesting, still believing he could trick one of the most powerful beings in all of Asgard.

"You must be mistaken, we were…" he began, but before he could even finish the sentence, Thor cut him off. Loki's face sank. Once again, he had embarrassed him by simply having a stronger will, by being the stronger brother. Heimdall was just as curious about how the Frost Giants had managed to enter Asgard without him not seeing it. With this knowledge, Thor and the others knew that they were being allowed to pass. They walked on into the observatory, leaving Loki the last to move.

"What happened, silver tongue turned to lead?" Volstagg joked, as he and the others walked past him. Loki was used to this sort of joke being aimed at him, so smiled & carried on. Yelena stood inside the observatory, still not quite sure how a day that was supposed to have been so full of joy and celebration had become full of such disobedience and danger. The group stood in some kind of formation, staring out at the stars filling the space through which they were about to travel. Heimdall activated the Bifrost, and as the observatory began to turn, she looked over to Loki, what for she didn't know – perhaps for that reassuring look he gave her whenever she was worried or frightened.

"Be warned – I will honour my sworn oath to protect this realm as its gatekeeper. If you're return threatens the safety of Asgard, the Bifrost will remain closed…" Heimdall began, a sense of dread suddenly filled Yelena's body, she did not want to go, but she could not leave Loki. As the dread started to take over her mind & fill her with questions of doubt, Thor declared that he "had no plans to die today", to which Heimdall replied "None do" before the Bifrost consumed the group. They were flying through the stars on their way to Jotunheim, and now there was no turning back.


	3. Chapter 3 - Jotunheim

The roar of noise that surrounded the group as they travelled through the Bifrost was deafening, the light was blinding and the sense of anticipation was growing. But there was barely enough time to contemplate their surroundings as they were transported to the frozen darkness that was Jotunheim. Everything suddenly became quiet; the sound of the cold winds blowing through an empty landscape the only noise, dilapidated structures the only sight. Nobody moved for the first few moments after arrival, it was almost as if they had become frozen to the spot in which they stood. The cold air pierced Yelena's body right to the core; she had never known such coldness. The others felt it too, but none let it show, nor did they let any sign of fear or worry cross their faces. Hogun was the first to speak –

"We shouldn't be here" he said, adding more tension to the situation rather than diffusing any. Yelena gave Loki a sideways glance, she did not want to be here and neither did he.

"Let's move" Thor said. There was no sign of fear in his voice or his body language. He began to walk forward and everyone else followed him. Yelena moved closer to Loki, she felt safer this way and the rest of the group were all too busy following Thor and taking in their dark surroundings to notice what she was doing. As they walked, part of a structure in the distance fell, the unstable condition of the realm was incredibly visible. There was not a single Frost Giant in sight, the silence still only being broken by the ghostly winds and the occasional sound of something crashing to the ground. The cold was almost unbearable – it was almost as sharp upon the skin as the surface of the place which was more like shards of glass than anything else. Finally, they came to what shared a resemblance to something that may have once been a grand structure, perhaps whatever equivalent of a palace the Jotuns had. Suddenly, a voice came across the wind –

"You've come a long way to die, Asgardians." The voice was heavy, it sounded tired, yet it still struck fear into the group. Well, all except Thor perhaps. Thor replied to the voice with confidence, so much so that is seemed to boom through the cold atmosphere. The rest of the group stood there, watching, listening. They had found one Frost Giant, but it was not simply any Frost Giant, it was Laufey, their king. The same king that Odin had defeated many years ago and taken the Casket of Ancient Winters from. The exchange between Laufey and Thor was becoming more and more heated, the sense of tension between them rising with every moment that passed. More Frost Giants were beginning to appear by this time. Within seconds, the small group of seven were surrounded by a huge number of the dwellers of Jotunheim. Loki and Yelena shared a look that was one of mutual worry for both themselves, as well as each other. All that she could think of were the stories her father had told her as a child; how the Frost Giants were a merciless race once engaged in battle and not a foe to be thought of as an easy fight. Loki knew he had to try and avert a conflict, one that they could surely not win. He spoke to Thor, trying to get him to see sense about their odds of winning, trying to get him to walk away while Laufey would still allow them to. For a moment it seemed as though Loki's efforts has worked. Thor turned, ready to leave with the group, however once a Frost Giant uttered the words "run back home, little princess", the whole group knew it was game over. Thor smiled an arrogant smile, turned and struck the Frost Giant with Mjolnir. The fight had begun.

Frost Giants seemed to be appearing from every direction now, and Yelena found herself overwhelmed. She conjured the first weapon she could think of – it was one very similar to that which Sif favoured, having spent so much time on the receiving end of such a weapon in the training sessions with her, she knew it was a useful one. As well as staying alive, her main focus was to keep near Loki, she needed to know he was safe in order for her to feel even remotely safe. At one point she saw him seemingly trapped between an advancing Jotun and a drop that would have never been survivable, her level of panic had not been so high up until that point, yet the relief she felt upon seeing it was one of his tricks soon calmed and re-focussed her. The others were fighting strongly; Thor seemed to be enjoying himself, as did Fandral to an extent. Volstagg had had his arm grabbed by one of the Frost Giants and the coldness of their hand upon his skin burnt him, the pain being evident in his voice as he warned the others to not let the creatures touch them.

Yelena was fighting better than even she had expected, and just as she had defeated yet another Jotun, she suddenly became distracted as part of the structure around her seemed to break off and fall to the ground. She did not see the Frost Giant running towards her until the last minute. She did not have time to think, but before she knew it, Loki had pushed her out of the path of the giant. Her head hit the ground, dazing her a little. As she tried to re-focus, she did not see that the same Frost Giant that would surely have killed her had taken hold of Loki's arm. She did not see Loki kill that Frost Giant. She did see the man she loved staring at his arm. It was blue. The skin has not burnt like Volstagg's had; instead, it had just changed to the colour of the native creatures. She saw the look of confusion upon Loki's face and the same questions that had filled his mind suddenly filled hers. But this was not a time for conversation or questions, now was a time to concentrate on getting back to Asgard alive. As Loki began to turn to look at her, she turned her head back to the floor, pretending she had not seen anything. It would be easier that way she thought, for now.

Yelena stood, still a little dazed but more driven than ever to get away from this place. She heard Fandral let out a cry of pain and turned to see him impaled on large shards of ice.

"Loki!" she cried to the still slightly distracted young prince, pointing at Fandral. Loki threw one of his knives at the Frost Giant who was getting rapidly closer to the wounded member of the group, as the others helped him. At this point, the group knew they had to leave. All except Thor, who was so engrossed in his own little battle that it felt as though he had not noticed anything else that was going on.

"Thor!" Sif shouted, a sense of urgency becoming clear in her tone. Thor did not respond, but by this time Loki knew it was a case of leaving now or never.

"We MUST go!" he demanded of his brother, and as soon as Thor said for them to go, the group started back for the site upon which the Bifrost had delivered them. Thor continued to destroy any Frost Giant who tried to attack him, but the others were running. Running for their lives, running out of want to return home safely. They had not noticed that Laufey had released a huge monster that had been entirely encased in ice, and that monster was now racing towards them. Yelena refused to look back, her mind was completely set on reaching the Bifrost site, and she could now hear the pursuing creature, yet she refused to let it distract her. She would run until she could run no more, she would not die here. As they reached the place in which they had arrived, the group called out to Heimdall to re-open the Bifrost to them. Nothing happened. Suddenly, the creature that Laufey had unleashed upon them appeared, ready to attack. Thor however had other plans and flew straight through the creatures head, killing it instantly. He looked smug. Proud of himself and what he had done. Yelena hated him for it. Her life and those of his friends had been at such great risk, yet he looked upon everything with the eyes of a child, engrossed in a play-fight that he was winning. She could not understand how he, knowing he would one day be king of a great realm that would face many serious trials and threats, had never really grown up. The monster had been destroyed yes, but now, as they turned to face the direction from which they had ran, they realised that they were now surrounded. The Jotuns never really expressed emotion, but the anger and tension that they were feeling was incredibly obvious. They stood for a moment before they went to lunge towards the group. Yelena braced herself for what she feared was the end, grabbing Loki's hand because if they were to die, there was no harm in the two of them showing affection to one another. But they were not to die now. There was a sudden loud noise and burst of familiar light. The sound of the Bifrost made Yelena open her eyes out of hope. It was Odin.

"Father! We'll finish them together!" Thor cried, the same childish pride in his voice as there had been since the plan of going to Jotunheim had been conceived. But that was soon destroyed, Odin was not there to fight, there was no sign of him being proud of his sons actions, only anger and shame. The exchange between Laufey and Odin that followed was a blur to Yelena, the relief of still being alive, and the relief of Loki still being alive was enough for her to focus. Neither of them had even thought to let go of the others hand, perhaps for now neither of them cared what the others thought or knew. Laufey declared to Odin that they were now beyond diplomacy, and that war was to once again be between them. As the stories of the last great war that her father told came back to the front of her mind, she grabbed Loki's hand tighter. He did not turn to look at her, but simply squeezed her hand as a sign of support and comfort. He knew how deep her fear of the Frost Giants ran, he was already sorry for getting her caught up in their expedition and now there were the questions running through his head about why his arm had turned blue and not burnt earlier in the battle. And he knew, deep down, that all that had occurred, all that would occur with the Jotuns, was at the root of it down to him. What was meant as a silly little prank had potentially turned the lives of many upside down. He was snapped out of his thoughts as the Frost Giant king suddenly lunged at Odin in an attempt to kill his long-time enemy, but Odin cast him back and before the group knew it, they were back in Heimdall's observatory.

Odin commanded that Fandral was to be taken to the healing room, and the other two warriors along with lady Sif made a hasty exit. Yelena's first instinct was to stay, she was afterall like a member of the family, but she soon realised that the conversation that was about to occur between Odin and Thor was not one that she would have been a part of or wanted to hear. She looked at Loki, whose face was one full of worry, gave him a nod which she wasn't quite sure if it was meant as a way of saying "I'll see you back at the palace" or "good luck". She left the All-Father and the two brothers to it, anxious as to what the outcome of this exchange would be. If only she knew how much the events of that day were to change the life she had been happy with for so long.


End file.
